Welcome!

Thank you very much for visiting our site, and a
warm welcome from our department! Over the last 60
years, we have grown into one of the leading departments
in our field of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.
We have strong graduate and undergraduate programs
which are nationally recognized. We pursue research
with a combination of theory, modeling, and diagnostic
studies. We support this work with a foundation of
first-year graduate core courses, and an appealing
range of electives for both graduate and undergraduate
students. (more...)

UW-AOS professors Desai and L'Ecuyer featured in this WhyFiles article

AOS Professors Ankur Desai and Tristan L'Ecuyer, as well as CCR Director Jack Williams and several other CCR Scientists were featured in a recent WhyFiles article. Who is a climate scientist? Check the story to see!

Andrew Winters receives the 2014 Teaching Award

The Campus-Wide TA Award Committee has selected Andrew Winters as a winner of a 2014 Teaching Award!

Congratulations Andrew!

Prof. Liu article in Science

Prof. Liu is co-author on examining the hydrological changes across North and East Africa during the last deglaciation, published in Science.

Prof. Liu article in Nature

Badger Weather Blog goes public!

Since late September, students in ATMOCN 452 (Synoptic Laboratory 1) have been developing and issuing weather forecasts for the Madison area each day on a blog: the Badger Weather Blog (http://badgerwxblog.blogspot.com). The purpose of the blog is for students to develop their skills in interpreting and diagnosing observations and model forecast data as well as their communication skills to the general public (Public Forecast Briefing) and to those more familiar intimately with the science (Forecast Discussion). After an initial round of forecasts earlier this semester, starting on Monday evening 27 October, the website will go "live." Students are expected to respond to the questions posed about current and future weather in Madison in the comments section of each post.

Please note that the forecasts are issued in the late afternoon/early evening each day Monday through Thursday. In cases of severe weather, please always consult the National Weather Service for more detailed and timely updates.

AOS students, staff, and faculty interested in supporting this effort on Fridays, weekends, and between semesters should contact Michael Morgan (mcmorgan@wisc.edu).

We welcome your comments and questions regarding the forecasts going forward. All comments will be screened before being posted.

U.S. Professors of the Year

John A. Knox, AOS PhD 1996, was a selection and contender for Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching CASE Professor of the year. 2014 State Winners

Congratulations, John!

Professor Tripoli elected AMS Fellow

AOS Professor Greg Tripoli has been elected Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. This honor recognizes those "who have made outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences or their applications during a substantial period of years."

Congratulations, Greg!

Professor Ackerman named Associate Vice Chancellor for the Physical Sciences

As part of the new Graduate School administrative structure, AOS Professor and CIMSS director Steve Ackerman has been named Associate Vice Chancellor for the Physical Sciences. Here is the University of Wisconsin news article announcing all of the new administrative positions.

Congratulations, Steve!

Professor Liu describes ongoing research about a climate conundrum

Proxy data or models: which is right with respect to past climate? Here are a University of Wisconsin news article and an abstract from PNAS

Peter Lamb - 6/21/1947 - 5/28/2014

Photo c/o CIMSS, University of Oklahoma

Peter Lamb, George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the School of Meteorology and Director of the University's Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS), passed away suddenly at his home in Norman, Oklahoma on May 28, 2014. Peter Lamb received his PhD from UW-Madison in 1976. He was a strong advocate for UW-Madison and for the historic department he attended. His primary research interests were in the physical and dynamical processes of climate and its short-term fluctuations. He is well known for the personal touches he made to the lives of his colleagues and the people he mentored. He was a tireless leader of CIMMS and of all of the NOAA Cooperative Institutes and the research they conduct in support of NOAA and the nation. We will remember his hand-written notes on yellow legal paper that added a personal touch to all meetings and correspondence. His soft-spoken, authoritative voice and personal warmth is a loss to us all.

A memorial service will be held in the Atrium of the National Weather Center, 120 David L. Boren Blvd, Norman, Oklahoma on June 7, 2014 at 2 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation to be made to the Ethembeni School, a boarding school serving 300 physically disabled or visually impaired students in the Kwazulu-natal region of South Africa. Please visit www.ethembenischool.co.za to donate and reference "in honor of Peter James Lamb" in the comment section.

Kristina Williams and Marian Mateling – WxChallenge foreast awards - Kristina won the overall best forecaster award, beating out all faculty, grad students and undergrads for the Norman, OK forecast period. Marian was a runner up for the undergrad category for Norman - 4th overall when you consider all faculty, grad students and undergrads.

Professors McKinley and Vimont contribute to Climate Change forum

On December 11th, 2013, AOS professors Galen McKinley and Dan Vimont spoke at an informational forum: "Climate Change: What it means for Wisconsin's Economy and Natural Resources," (View the agenda) hosted by Representatives Fred Clark (D) and Jeff Mursau (R) of the Wisconsin Legislature and co-hosted by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences Arts & Letters.

The forum agenda stated, "The purpose of the forum [was] to begin the discussion of how a changing climate affects Wisconsin's many natural resources and, consequently, Wisconsin's business practitioners that depend on these natural resources.

Steve Ackerman named as a 2014 AMS Fellow

Congratulations to Prof. Steve Ackerman who was named as a one of the 2014 American Meteorological Society Fellows.

New Department Chair

With the start of the new school year, Prof. Grant Petty, who has been with the department since 2000, is taking over the reins as Department Chair from Prof. Jonathan Martin.
Thank you, Jon, for your 9 years of dedication, service, and hard work!

NWS Director Louis Uccellini to lead Town Hall discussion August 22, 2013

Uccellini, the National Weather Service Director and an alumnus of UW-Madison, will be in Madison later this summer to lead a Town Hall discussion titled "Building a Weather-Ready Nation." The discussion will address the question of how we as a nation can better prepare for extreme weather events and other key influences of weather on society.

Sponsored by SSEC and AOS, the event will be held on August 22, 2013 from 5-7pm in the Hector DeLuca Forum at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. The Town Hall is open to the public and we're hoping to reach a wide audience. Each of us, scientist or not, has a role to play in discussing how to actively prepare for weather disasters.

CCR celebrates 50 years

Congratulations to the Center for Climatic Research on their 50th anniversary. Since 1962, CCR faculty, scientists and students have been working to understand how the climate works and why it changes. The Nelson Institute's In Common Magazine has a nice writeup on the history of CCR.

Rooftop Camera images and movies

The AOSS building hosts three rooftop camera (currently facing west, northwest, and north.) The most recent images and time lapse quicktime movies are now available. Daily sunrise to sunset movies and highlights of particularly interesting phenomena will be coming soon.

Journal of the UW-AOS

This is an unofficial journal of working papers written by undergraduate and graduate students of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. These papers are not intended to be used as official references.
Check out their work in the Journal of the UW-AOS